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Hydrogen’s Role in a Net-Zero Carbon World:
Energy Initiatives from IHS Markit

A quantitative exploration of hydrogen’s game-changing potential

Multiple policy initiatives in Europe, California and China are driving decarbonization across power, transportation, and natural gas end-use sectors. Hydrogen is a promising option that is receiving increased attention for its potential to shape the future fuel mix.

Hydrogen can be both a zero-carbon energy carrier and storable/dispatchable. In principle, therefore, it offers significant advantages in energy systems where other sources of energy tend to be one, or the other, but not both. Hydrogen can be used across all energy sectors – including power generation, heat, industrial uses and transport.

However, before hydrogen can be considered as a significant contributor to the future fuel mix, a series of practical issues must be addressed. Businesses and investors will need to develop business models that offer the prospect of acceptable returns. To explore hydrogen's global market outlook, IHS Markit has launched several initiatives. 

Download an Introduction to IHS Markit's Hydrogen Initiatives

Current IHS Markit Initiatives

  •

    European Hydrogen Forum

    In 2018, the European Commission announced the objective of reaching a “net zero-carbon world” for its revised 2050 energy roadmap. If the European Union agrees to adopt this target, there will be no role by midcentury for the combustion of unabated natural gas in EU countries.

  •

    Hydrogen in the Golden State

    All eyes are on California as it aspires to lead the United States to a low and eventually net-zero carbon future. Multiple policy initiatives are driving decarbonization across the state’s power, transportation, and natural gas end-use sectors.

  •

    Hydrogen in China – Meeting China’s Energy Challenge

    Hydrogen could provide an alternative to imported natural gas as it can be used in all end-use sectors. This initiative examines technology options for China, including hydrogen from power to gas and gasification technologies.

Why Hydrogen Now?

The extent of the impact of environmental policies on energy businesses remains uncertain, the reach and depth of decarbonization is subject to continued political debate.

However, prudent strategic planning for business must incorporate the possibility of economy-wide deep decarbonization policies. These could become a risk to a company’s current operations and the value of its assets—or can offer an opportunity for new, profitable areas of activity.

At the international level, the pace of decarbonization measures is quickening. In Europe, the European Council (the heads of government of all European Union countries) has now required the European Commission to prepare routes to a carbon-free Europe by 2050. In the US, California has enacted legislation for a carbon-free power sector by 2045, accompanied by an executive order for a carbon-neutral economy by the same date. At least 17 other US states have made pledges for dramatic GHG reductions by 2050, and over 500 US cities, universities and private business support the US Paris Agreement pledges. If this momentum grows in the US, and ultimately results in political support for a low carbon economy, the impact on the energy industry will be transformational.

Energy professionals, academics, and (increasingly) governments and policy-makers recognize that if such radical measures are implemented, they will require innovation that goes beyond established practices that promote renewable electricity, energy efficiency, and biofuels. Above all, a zero-carbon energy path will have to replicate the energy density, the ease of transport and storage, and flexibility in use that hydrocarbons deliver today.

Participating Organizations

Experts

Shankari Srinivasan

Vice President - Energy, IHS Markit

Deborah Mann

Senior Director, European Gas, Power, and Renewables, IHS Markit

Catherine Robinson

Executive Director-European Power, Gas, Coal and Renewables, IHS Markit

Sylvain Cognet-Dauphin

Senior Director – European Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables (PGCR), IHS Markit.

Alex Klaessig

Director, Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables, IHS Markit

Patrick Luckow

Associate Director, Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables, IHS Markit

Xizhou Zhou

Managing Director – Global Power & Renewables, IHS Markit

Jenny Yang

Director – Energy Research and Analysis, IHS Markit

Dongjie Zhang

Senior Research Analyst, China Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables, IHS Markit

Mark Griffith

Director, Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables, IHS Markit

Soufien Taamallah, Ph.D.

Director, Energy Technologies and Hydrogen Research, IHS Markit

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